The Amazon is at risk of being controlled by the mafia, warns former PF chief

Alexandre Saraiva – who worked in the Amazon from 2011 to 2021 – told Guardian (*) fear that the growing presence of drug trafficking mafias in the region could generate a situation similar to the conflict in Rio de Janeiro, where the police battle against drugs has already cost tens of thousands of lives.

“I experienced how the state lost control of public security in Rio de Janeiro,” said Saraiva. “And in the Amazon today – if nothing is done in terms of public security – we are facing a continental Rio de Janeiro, with the aggravating factors of borders with large drug producers and an extraordinarily difficult jungle scenario.”

Saraiva warned of dire consequences for the rainforest and its inhabitants if criminal gangs were allowed to transform into powerful armies like the rebel factions in neighboring Colombia. “We will have criminal insurgents … [whose] ideology is money,” he said.

“We will have areas of conflagration, of great conflict between groups fighting for areas of illegal gold and timber extraction. In the midst of this, we will have indigenous victims. And we will face immense logistical difficulties to combat this”, warned the delegate, author of the book 'Jungle: loggers, miners and corruption in a lawless Amazon'.

The warning came ahead of the first anniversary of the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, whose deaths exposed widespread environmental devastation and the growing reach of organized crime groups in the Amazon.

One of the people I really wanted to speak to for the #BrunoDomProject was @DelegadoSaraiva who Dom interviewed for his book on the Amazon. He sees a bleak future for the region if the "criminal insurgents" advancing through the rainforest are not stopped https://t.co/6EVr9UjeYg

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) June 1, 2023

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